Chevy 210 Chassis Part 2 - Morrison's Gt55-Part 2 - Body Prep

Here's What It Takes To Remove Our Classic's Body And Get It Ready To Have The New Frame Put Underneath

Starting with one of most visible items, the radiator is drained and the hoses disconnected and removed from the core support.

Body off: It's one of those terms that gets tossed around the car world to signify the amount of work one has put into their project. Whether it's a restoration or a custom, when a person throws those words into the mix you know that they weren't messing around when they built their car. And let's face it, pulling the body off of the frame can be one of the more challenging steps in building a car; a body is big, heavy, and there's a lot of "stuff" keeping the frame firmly attached to it. Combine that with nearly 50 years of leaking oil, caked on mud, and road grime and you have a big, greasy, dirty job on your hands.

Since we are replacing the crusty old frame with a brand new Art Morrison Enterprises (AME) Tri-Five chassis, it's not as bad of a job as it could be. With all the suspension, body, drivetrain, and bumper mounts jig-welded onto the new AME frame, countless hours spent cleaning, repairing, and updating the original have been eliminated. It's simply a matter of rolling the old frame out from under the body and replacing it with the new AME chassis, leaving us with some serious hardware for the next swap meet.

Since the body is now off of the frame, we have a great opportunity to prepare it for the new chassis and to repair any sheetmetal and any rust spots that the floor may have. While we thought that we had a rust-free car, we were surprised to see a soft spot in the driver's foot well.

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The vintage wiring is pulled out and all wires between the engine, body and frame are disconnected.

Danchuck supplied us with a replacement panel and we were able to quickly repair the area, saving us hours of headaches. Since we are running the massive T56 six-speed from Keisler Automotive, capable of handling our Bill Mitchell small-block, we also needed to make some modifications to the transmission tunnel. This is the only transmission that requires tunnel mods, as even a TH400 has plenty of room under the stock tunnel.

With the Danchuck panel welded into place and the transmission tunnel fixed, we were able to direct our attention to the rear half of the car that needed a few little touches to accept the chassis. Once Art disconnected the fuel line and sending unit wire, he was able to remove the fuel tank. After closer inspection, we found that it was full of rust and had a small but dangerous leak. Thankfully, Danchuck makes a direct replacement, complete with sending unit.

In order to get the body to properly fit onto the chassis we needed to remove the stock pinion snubber and a small brake bracket. A little work with a cutoff wheel and they were no longer an issue. Since the Tri-Five trunks are offset to the driver side, we had to make some room for the left rear shock bracket. A few taps with a ball-peen hammer provided us with more than enough clearance for the bracket as well as the coilover's mounting hardware. Thankfully GM provided Tri-Five Chevys with cavernous wheel wells. As a result we are able to fit a set of 275/45ZR18 BFGoodrich g-Force/TA tires mounted on Boyd Magnetos into the stock wheel housing.

MORE PHOTOS

Starting with one of most visible items, the radiator is drained and the hoses disconnected and removed from the core support.

The vintage wiring is pulled out and all wires between the engine, body and frame are disconnected.

Brake lines are unscrewed at the master cylinder and then drained to prevent a mess.

Shifter linkage is removed off of the steering column.

The steering wheel and steering column is removed so the steering box can be taken off of the frame.

The front bumper is then removed to clear the sheetmetal surrounding the grille.

The rear bumper is also removed.

Rear shocks are unbolted and pulled out of the way so they don't catch on anything when the body is lifted off of the chassis.

The fuel line and sending unit wire are disconnected and then the fuel tank is removed for inspection.

When we removed the stock fuel tank this small but potentially dangerous leak was discovered.

Art then moved forward and removed the E-brake bracket.

Next up were the speedometer and overdrive cables.

The splash panels were removed from the front wheel wells.

To break the rusty core support bolts loose, an impact wrench was used.

The body mount bolts were then removed. Some of the bolts were missing and some broke off during removal.

As you can see, nearly 50 years have taken its toll on the stock body mounting hardware. Once again Danchuck saved the day with its brand new hardware and rubber kit.

When the body was lifted up, we double and triple checked for wires, lines, bolts, and cables we may have overlooked.

With the body now up in the air, it is now time to roll the old chassis out, and prepare the floor for the new chassis.

The front bench was removed and the carpet pulled back so Art could make the necessary modifications to the trans tunnel so it would accept the Keisler Automotive T-56 six-speed transmission.

Nearly finished, you can see just how little the stock tunnel needed to be raised. This panel will be made so it can be removed to access the top of the transmission without having to pull it out of the car.

Now that the carpet is pulled back, we were able to get a much better look at just how rusty the driver side foot well is.

Installed, the floor is as good as new and retains the stock shape and contour.

To make room for the shock cross member, the pinion snubber needs to be removed.

This close-up of the floor shows that it only takes a few taps with a hammer to get the proper amount of clearance for the driver-side shock bracket.

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